


Why Fake Names Are a Dumb Idea

by PlatonicRabbit



Series: Soulmate AU [1]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Background Destiel, Disabled Character, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Minor Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Trans Character, basically crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-10 15:03:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3294785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PlatonicRabbit/pseuds/PlatonicRabbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day after an m writes itself on his skin eleven year old Samael simply declares that his name is now Lucifer. Ignoring the general confusion this causes and Michael’s snide remarks that two people called Sam are going to have a hard enough time finding each other already without one of them using a pseudonym all the time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How Lucifer Milton Learned To Stop Being So Damned Contrary

**Author's Note:**

> First uploaded fic in about five years, and first in the Supernatural fandom. I'm slightly afraid.  
> Not entirely sure about formatting either, but I suppose I'll just learn that as I go.  
> The bits in parentheses are Lucifer's thoughts
> 
> Also I should mention I didn't make up the "Samael" thing, it's supposed to have been Lucifer's actual name from before he fell. One of them. 
> 
> Second chapter will be Sam's POV

**If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**

At the age of eight Samael wakes up one morning with a very fancy looking _S_ inked into his collarbone. It’s the kind of lettering Samael wanted for his tattoo, like something right out of a medieval book. He shows Raphael, who complains at the top of his voice (and with absolutely no trace whatsoever of envy) about how little he cares. He shows Michael, who rolls his eyes and says tattoos are dumb but at least Samael had managed to avoid getting a tramp stamp like Gabriel. He shows Gabriel, who makes fun of Samael for not getting a tramp stamp like him. Not that the little brat actually knows what that means. Samael is just pleased he and his soulmate are going to be alliterative. He likes alliterative couples. They sound very tidy.

 

A year later, Samael catches sight in the bathroom mirror of a spidery _a_ next to his fancy _S_. He squints at it suspiciously. Sam is a common name after all. For both genders. A very common name.  
He decides not to tell Michael, who at the age of thirteen still hasn't found a single letter.  
He doesn't tell Gabriel either, only because his youngest brother has become extremely secretive about his own tattoo ever since finding out what a tramp stamp is. The kid never comes out of the bathroom without three layers of shirts on anymore.  
Raphael simply huffs under his breath and goes back to his dumb show when Samael tries to show off his letter.  
His brothers are such bitches.

 

The day after an _m_ writes itself on his skin eleven year old Samael simply declares that his name is now Lucifer; ignoring the general confusion this causes and Michael’s snide remarks that two people called Sam are going to have a hard enough time finding each other already without one of them using a pseudonym all the time.  
All that Lucifer ever says on the topic is that one of them will have to go by a different name anyway to avoid confusion and it makes perfect sense for him to want to get used to replying to something else.  
Gabriel thinks Lucifer just likes being contrary; or perhaps that he likes making things unnecessarily difficult for himself.  
Raphael rolls his eyes so hard Lucifer can hear him.

 

Upon the arrival of the _u_ Lucifer feels a mix of relief and annoyance.  
It would have been really frustrating if their given names were spelled exactly the same, no matter what Lucifer calls himself. But _Samuel_ is a ridiculously common name. Seriously, there are like twelve Samuels just at Lucifer’s school. Surely their parents remember the frustration of hearing the right name, only to realize it’s the wrong person. Surely. Unless his Sam has parents named Andromeda Phoenix and Lancelot Beauregard and they thought it would be better to spare their child that fate. 

 

The _e_ appears right around the time of Lucifer’s fifteenth birthday. Staring in the mirror, he decides to make a serious effort at finding Samuel this year. After all, two of his brothers don’t seem to have soulmates at all and if Lucifer wastes this chance they- or Michael at least- will probably never forgive him (Raphael might have the opposite reaction and never forgive him for finding his soulmate but that kid was always a jealous, neurotic stick in the mud)

 

Lucifer barely even cares when the final letter appears. He’s sixteen and in the past year his life has been turned on its head. There are more immediate things to worry about than the stupid tattoo. Besides, at this point the letter could hardly be anything other than an _l_. Although it would be nice if the other boy’s parents had been considerate enough to tack a _z_ or _j_ on the end of Samuel’s name, just to make identifying him easier. No such luck apparently.  
By this point Chuck has left his family so he can go smoke a lot of crack, drink a lot of tequila and write crappy mystery fiction (read: porn) in a dinghy apartment (way to have a midlife crisis, dad). Michael is more of an ass than ever, breaking under the strain of trying to care for three teenagers alone in his first year out of school.  
Gabriel is spending more and more time out of the house doing God-knows-what; or maybe God-knows-who. Lucifer doesn't want to ask but he’s afraid his younger brother’s infamous tramp stamp might have vanished, signifying an early death for the poor kid’s soulmate.  
Raphael, shortly after coming out as trans (which no one really cared about but she could have picked a better time than _the night dad left, seriously, Raph_ ) decided she wanted to be a doctor and therefore couldn't possibly be expected to find part time work with her brothers. Obviously the demands of her studies took precedence over their collective need to buy food.

 

It’s no accident Lucifer only applies to colleges that happen to be a very long way from home. Four years away from the soap opera his family life turned into is sounding really nice right about now. Four years away from New York winters wouldn't exactly be something he’d turn down either. Four years away from Michael and his fraying temper. Four years away from Gabriel, who apparently did not lose his tattoo but just wants to be “experienced” enough when the time comes for him to meet his soulmate, which is getting more and more disturbing every week. Four years away from Raphael, who had failed to become any less of an annoying, smug piece of crap as she’d aged. 

 

Lucifer wasn't one of those kids who grew up dreaming of a grand escape to the world of tertiary education but he can’t deny Stanford law school is the best time of his life so far. He’s second in his class by an infuriatingly tiny margin to a ridiculous boy named- of all things- _Samuel_.  
Glaring at the back of the boy’s head during his final exam of the year (torts), Lucifer wonders whether Sam sold his soul for those extra inches of height. Or maybe it was for his perfect hair. Or his brains. Or the pretty blond girl he’s always with.  
Boy might be the wrong word for a giant who is barely a month younger than Lucifer but Sam Winchester, at 22, somehow looks fresh faced and innocent enough that he’s probably still mistaken for a teenager on occasion, despite his size.  
It’s not that Lucifer hates Sam; quite the opposite. It’s just that he can never forget the way his stomach did a flip when he first saw the boy, a second when he introduced himself as Sam with that breathtaking smile, and then dropped through the floor when _Jessica_ materialized at his side.  
Lucifer takes pride in finishing his exam before Sam. Knocking into the boy’s chair on the way past just to break his concentration might have been a bit petty but the startled, kicked puppy look makes it worthwhile. Smirking, Lucifer turns away to walk to the front of the room, trying very hard not to think about the two letters he saw on Sam’s collarbone (damn the boy’s low neckline) which were definitely not a _J_ and _e_.  
It’s a _very_ common name after all. 

 

Sam confronts Lucifer the very next day. 

‘Your name isn't Lucifer.’ He states bluntly. 

All he gets for his effort is a bored looking eyebrow raised in his direction.  
After a few moments of shuffling his feet, Sam makes his decision, somehow managing to gracefully fold his cartoonishly huge body into the seat across from Lucifer.  
Lucifer chooses to remain silent.  
Sam’s jaw sets determinedly.

‘I saw your exam cover paper yesterday. When you kicked me. I didn't mean to look. But your name kinda grabbed my attention. Because, uh,’ he trailed off, clearly nervous. 

Lucifer understands. He’s had this exact conversation from Sam’s end before, thinking he’s found the one only for it to turn out they have an entirely different name on their body, if they have one at all. This time though, he knows. Both of them have the tattoos on their collarbone and he saw Sam’s first two letters.  
And Sam is sitting here talking to him because he saw Lucifer’s given name.  
Lucifer finishes his drink and grins at Sam, predatory. He reaches up and slowly undoes the top buttons on his shirt, just enough to reveal the calligraphy printed on his skin.  
He stops the show to look at Sam, expecting to be greeted with the usual rapturous expression he’s watched adopted on the faces of others upon finding their soulmates (or maybe just a rapturous expression at seeing Lucifer’s amazing shoulders).

Sam just looks pissed.

‘Four fucking years we've known each other. Why the fuck are you using a fake name, _Samael_?’

Oh.  
Distantly Lucifer hopes Michael never hears about this. His brother wouldn't even have to say ‘I told you so’. He’d just look smug whenever he saw Sam for the rest of his life. It would be awful.  
Then Lucifer’s brain catches up with him and he realizes that _Sam Winchester_ is sitting across from him demanding an explanation for the four wasted years.  
Sam, whose soulmate is apparently not pretty, blonde Jess.  
Sam, who Lucifer has been waiting for since he was eight years old.  
Hoping to distract him from the issue at hand (because Lucifer really doesn't have a valid excuse for the four wasted years, not to mention the last twenty four definitely wasted hours) he launches himself across the table at Sam and kisses him.  
It works.

 **If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**


	2. How Sam Winchester Discovered His Soulmate is a Ginormous Idiot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam is seven (eight in TWELVE DAYS) when his first letter appears over his clavicle. The lettering is unusual, careful, like the hand that wrote it was unaccustomed to a Latin alphabet. Sam shows the letter – an “S”, like Sam’s own initial- to Dean, but not to dad. Dad can see the letter sometime when he didn’t leave Sam’s favourite blanket at the laundromat that afternoon.

**If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**

Sam is seven (eight in TWELVE DAYS) when his first letter appears over his clavicle. The lettering is unusual, careful, like the hand that wrote it was unaccustomed to a Latin alphabet. Sam shows the letter – an _S_ , like Sam’s own initial- to Dean, but not to dad. Dad can see the letter sometime when he didn't leave Sam’s favourite blanket at the laundromat that afternoon. 

In return, Dean shows Sam the elegant _C_ on his upper right bicep. They talk late into the night, not bothering to keep their voices down because John never wakes up when he’s snoring like that, sleeping with the bottle still in his hand. Dean thinks his soulmate is Cleopatra and he’s going to be Pharaoh of Egypt. 

‘That’s not right, silly,’ Sam giggles at his brother. ‘Cleopatra died years and years and years ago. I bet your soulmate is called Cabbage.’

Cabbage is currently the only green thing Sam won’t eat.  
Dean grins in the darkness of the tiny room. His Sammy knows all about some random chick like Cleopatra, even though he’s only seven. His Sammy is going places.  


‘I bet yours is called Slimy,’ he shoots back at Sam, unwilling to let even a joking insult pass. 

 

When he is nine Sam gets his second letter. He uses a school computer to browse lists of names, wondering if he can find the right one, if he would know if he did.  
Dean has two more letters by now and (after the initial disappointment that a long dead Egyptian queen was not his soulmate) has begun his Epic Journey to Find “Probably-Named-Cassandra”. So far he’s found three, two of which went on singular, presumably bad dates with him and one who punched him in the face when asked.  
Sam thinks the Cassandra who punched his brother was Dean’s favourite, because Dean cried a little even though it didn't look like it hurt that much. 

Dad comes home and announces they’re moving again at the end of the month, to Minnesota, something about getting closer to some girl called Kate. Dean shrugs, secretly glad to be heading away from the girl who punched him in front of half the school but unwilling to do what John says just because. Dean is thirteen and he can’t be seen to be obedient, even if no one is around to notice.  
Sam’s mouth sets in a tight line and he pushes his pencil into the paper hard enough to tear the page and break off the granite tip. He doesn't say another word to John until after they settle in to the new town and school.

 

The third letter sends Sam into a blind panic. Dean is singularly unhelpful, telling Sam a story about a kid in his class called Peter Peterson Jr, son of soulmates Peter and Petra Peterson. Sam doesn't believe the story until Dean takes him to meet the unfortunate boy in question.  
Their now five year old half-brother Adam is fascinated, running his peanut butter greasy fingers over Sam’s shoulder over and over. Adam declares that when he gets his tattoo, he wants it to be a rainbow. Dean laughs and laughs, but the adults fall into a tense silence. Kate never had a soulmate and the writing on the back of John’s hand is a heavy weight on their relationship.  
Dean hasn't gotten a new letter in almost three years and they’re starting to wonder if he will. “Cas” might have weird parents who give nicknames instead of proper names to their kids. 

 

The next time John uproots the family he’s drunk and wraps the Impala around a tree. Sam escapes with little more than a concussion but little Adam’s mother is killed instantly and Adam himself confined to a wheelchair. Dean needs a pin in his knee but recovers quickly.  
John is declared an unfit parent by the state and all three boys are taken in by Bobby, to Sam’s great relief. 

The _a_ is nothing short of a miracle from Sam’s point of view. The Peterson family has stuck in his head to the point where he was having dreams about ending up in a similar situation where his soulmate is named Samantha Samson and they have a son who they call Samson Samuel.  
Dean had laughed his head off when Sam confessed that dream, and even Adam had smiled a little.  
Dean is dating a girl named Cassie. She has the letters _Den ___written on her leg and Dean jokes that John must have misspelled his name on his birth certificate.  
John has certainly done stupider things, but Sam quietly doubts that’s the case in this instance.  
Cassie’s letters are on her thigh and Dean’s are on his shoulder. 

 

Sam is writing an essay on what he thinks his soulmate will be like. It’s one of those unintentionally cruel things written by teachers who grew up next door to their soulmate and didn’t have a single close friend without a tattoo.  
Sam is already imagining that he and his soulmate will have a difficult –at best- relationship. He thinks the idea came from the years of the Peterson nightmare hanging over his head. His teacher called Bobby in to talk about Sam’s “disturbingly negative view of love”. He tries to convince Bobby Sam needs to be taken to a psychiatrist because he didn’t write some gushy love letter to someone he’s never even met. ****Bobby, thankfully, is smarter than that. They laugh about it on the way home.  
Dean and Cassie broke up after he received his fourth letter, a _t __. He’s been moping about it for weeks._

Adam has a letter now, too, but he won’t show his brothers what it is. Sam worries that Adam thinks his soulmate won’t want him because of his injuries. He can hear Adam’s sobs through the walls at night, can hear the comforting words Bobby uses to calm the boy and wishes he had the power to soothe either of his brothers like that. 

Whenever Adam has a meltdown Dean goes outside and takes a crowbar to the Impala, which John abandoned in Bobby’s lot after the accident, when his license was confiscated. Dean’s relationship with that car is strange. He projects his issues with John onto it, takes his rage out on it, and then fixes it up and treats it like it’s made of china, calling it his Baby. 

 

Sam copies his soulmate’s name into a book over and over, ripping out and tearing up the pages when he’s done. The _l_ , he is sure, will be the last letter, mostly because he can’t find any other names that are still possibilities.  
The letter from Stanford sits on his desk unopened. Sam still hasn't decided if he wants to go or not, but if he got in he needs to put his response in the post tomorrow.  
Adam wheels himself into Sam’s room as he opens the letter and goes into hysterics upon seeing it. The kid has some serious abandonment issues, but Sam just can’t do this anymore. Sioux Falls is not, and never has been, a place for Sam Winchester. He tries to tell Adam it’ll be okay, he still has Dean and Bobby, and Adam’s a smart kid, as least as smart as Sam, and he can still get into medical school despite his condition. Adam looks like he believes it a little less every year.  
The decision is made.  
Dean doesn't speak to him again for months after he leaves. 

 

Sam is in the zone today. The words are flying from his pen onto the page and he’s sure he’ll get an A for this. If he doesn’t Lucifer Milton will probably take his spot at the top of the class (seriously who names their child that). Sam needs to graduate top. It’s the only way to validate to himself his decision to leave in the first place.

Sam is thinking about taking time off at the end of this semester. Going back to Sioux Falls to be with his brothers and surrogate father for a while. Finally meet Castiel, who Dean hasn't shut up about since they met at Adam’s physiotherapist’s office six months ago. If Sam leaves though, he’ll fall behind his current peers and never be in Lucifer’s classes again. So it was doubly important he managed to stay in front for this term. The blond boy had made himself Sam’s rival for some reason and Sam was not going to lose.

Speaking of Lucifer, there had been a noticeable decline in kicks aimed at Sam's chair in the last few minutes. Sam grits his teeth. Lucifer only stops annoying Sam when he is about to finish up and the shorter boy would see it as a personal victory if he walks out of the room first.  
Sam’s pen is almost a blur, sentences half formed in his mind solidifying as he pens them into a shape he is almost proud of. Never underestimate a Winchester’s ability to perform under pressure, Sam thinks, pausing to brush a strand of hair out of his eyes.

Luckily for Sam’s work it’s at that moment Lucifer gets up and purposefully collides with Sam’s chair in a way that would have left an elongated trail of ink across the page had his pen been in the vicinity of it.  
Sam whirls around to look at his smirking arch nemesis, intending to look angry but more than likely only managing a puppy-eyed look. Maybe guilting Lucifer was a better strategy anyway.

He swears he didn’t mean to look. And it’s only for a second, and the cover sheet is securely attached to Lucifer’s paper so it’s not like he gets a look at his fellow student’s work or anything.

That most definitely did not say Lucifer. The other boy has turned back now and is striding, as confident as ever, to the front of the room to hand in his paper. Sam knows he should stop looking, that he needs to finish in the next few minutes or he’ll be locked in til the end, but _Lucifer’s name is Samael_.  
A firm hand on Sam’s shoulder and a disapproving ahem snap him back to reality and he dives back into the exam, intending to belt out the concluding sentences and run after Luci-Samael.

Just as Sam is standing up a bell chimes and the moderator locks the door. Sam groans internally. There go his chances of catching his soulmate today; and of getting to the bus stop before the last ride of the day.  
The extra half hour of writing time had better buy Sam a better mark than Lucifer-Samael’s. 

 

It’s dark and cold when Sam finally turns onto his street. He’s spent the last hour walking rehearsing what he’s going to say to Jessica. Maybe it was better he missed the bus after all.  
The two of them had had a deal, right from the start, that if they found their real soulmates they would pursue the chance, no questions asked; but Sam remembers each of the three times Jess had found a Daniel and how much he had hurt every single time. He regrets having to do that to her now.  
Maybe he shouldn't.  
Maybe Lucifer has a reason for hiding his real name. Maybe he’s not even Sam’s soulmate. There has to be a reason he never said anything, never gave an indication that Samuel might have been his. Maybe Sam is running the risk of screwing up the perfectly good relationship he has with Jess for nothing.  
But they’ll call out Lucifer’s real name at graduation, and Jess will be there, and she’ll ask. Sam can’t lie to her and once she finds out he knew and didn’t do anything she will kick his 6’4 ass. Because what they have would be perfect, if neither of them had other people’s names written on their bodies, but they do, and it isn't.  
It had taken Sam a few months, initially, to get past looking at the name penned across Jess’s stomach every time they were together, but now he barely saw it.

Sam’s been standing outside the door, key in hand, for five minutes now, and his nose is getting cold. He is shaken from his reverie when the porch light turns on and Jess steps out holding two mugs of hot chocolate, the expensive kind they buy once every semester to celebrate the end of exams. Her smile falls away when she sees Sam’s face. 

‘You didn’t totally flunk did you?’

Sam takes a deep breath and opens his mouth.

 

Jess had been surprisingly fine with it (at least in front of Sam). She had practically forced him back to the campus the next day to seek out Lucifer and ask him already.  
Jess somehow knows Lucifer would be hanging outside the law library today until his final exam that evening. She claims she passes him at the same bench every day on the way to work at the book store next door but that doesn’t explain her knowing Lucifer’s exam timetable.  
Sam decides not to question it, still unsure of where he and Jess stand. They both know, somewhere inside them, that Lucifer is it, that their relationship of almost four years will be ending today, and Jess can pretend it doesn’t hurt all she likes but Sam knows her far too well by now.

Sam’s heart is hammering inside his chest as he crosses the courtyard. Lucifer is sitting right there, where Jess had said he would be, and Sam is growing more nervous with each step. He’s never had to ask someone if they’re his soulmate before. He’s never met a Samael, though he has spoken to one on the internet. That guy had headed him off with “Sorry, my soulmate is named Kelly” before Sam had even finished typing the words out.  
Sam is standing right in front of Lucifer now, looking down at the other boy, who is entirely too calm and collected; the arrogant douche. 

‘Your name isn't Lucifer.’ Oh good job Sam, lead with an accusation.

The other boy doesn’t even say anything, just lazily raises a smooth eyebrow, looking for all the world like Sam is a petulant child who he’s indulging.  
Sam hates that look.  
Lucifer wears it around him every time they talk, even though Sam’s come out ahead in every test they've taken together. That look is a much larger part of Sam’s motivation for beating the rest of the class than he likes to admit, even to himself.

‘I saw your exam cover paper yesterday. When you kicked me. I didn’t mean to look. But your name kinda grabbed my attention. Because, uh,’ Sam stops dead in the middle of the sentence.

If he’s wrong, the jerk is never going to let him forget this conversation.  
The time Sam Winchester was dumb enough to believe Lucifer could be his soulmate; the same Lucifer who kicks Sam’s feet under tables and can’t get through a simple exchange of greetings without finding a way to insult him. Lucifer obviously hates him.  
But Lucifer is just grinning, in a way that makes electricity run down Sam’s spine, eyes dancing like he knows exactly what Sam was going to say, which he obviously does, given the way he unbuttons his shirt and pulls it to the side. Sam’s own name is written on the boy’s collarbone, clear as day.  
How long had he known?  
Because Lucifer had known, nothing in this conversation was a surprise to him. That jerk. If he’d said something four years ago when they met Sam wouldn't have had to break Jess’s heart. That absolute ass.  
Sam is furious, and finally something manages to surprise Lucifer, Samael, because he’s clearly caught off guard by the anger he sees on Sam’s face when their eyes meet. 

‘Four fucking years we've known each other. Why the fuck are you using a fake name, Samael?’

Sam watches the expressions cross his soulmate’s face, surprise, indignation, doubt, guilt, panic.  
The last two mollify him a little.  
Sam is about to speak again, say something a little less harsh, when Lucifer’s features set determinedly and he throws himself bodily across the wooden table to kiss Sam. _Okay, yeah we can do that._  
And Lucifer still has a lot to answer for, and Sam’s break up with Jess is still fresh and painful, but at least he can have this. 

**If you're not reading this on AO3 it has been stolen.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This chapter was harder than the last one to write and I’m aware it kinda doesn’t match, with the last one being lighter hearted. But that’s just kinda how it turned out.  
> I’m sorry about Dean’s abusive relationship with an inanimate object, but in this verse he didn’t have hunting to tie his family together, John never gave the Impala to Dean and he almost killed Adam with it before abandoning them. So I could see Dean projecting his issues with John onto Baby, since he never had the same relationship with the car that he does in canon verse.  
> Also he does beat it with a crowbar once in season 2 when it's already smashed up so maybe I'm not that far off?
> 
> Also please no one kill me for hurting Adam.


End file.
